The students were walking back from the Kitty Cat Klub, a bar in Dinkytown, where they had been celebrating their acceptance to graduate school in architecture, reported the Pioneer Press.

According to the Minnesota Daily, Joe Bailin, his girlfriend Katelynn Hanson and their friend Sarah Bagley were going west toward Bailin's apartment, when someone yelled. The group saw bright lights coming toward them on the sidewalk.

Seconds later, a car slammed into them, knocking all three to the ground. The driver hit another pedestrian into a telephone pole, Benjamin Van Handel, also a University of Minnesota student, further down the block. Van Handel was walking alone, the Pioneer Press reported.

Bailin checked on his girlfriend, but she couldn't get up, Bailin told the Minnesota Daily.

Van Handel is in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center, McCarty said. Bagley and Hanson were also brought in by ambulance.